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The top 10 institutions that had reduced their bets on Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) before the company announced its open offer includes Vanguard, SBI Funds Management, T Rowe Price Associates, Mirae Asset and Fondbolag.
The top 10 sellers in HUL had reduced their position in the company by a cumulative 4.7 million shares, according to Bloomberg data at the end of the previous month. Those shares have since gained 25 per cent.
Fund managers did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Standard or declined to do so, citing compliance issues associated with talking about specific stocks.
These fund managers may potentially have missed out on a 25 per cent rally, although the data is for the end of March, and may not reflect subsequent changes in the portfolio.
The value of these shares at the end of March was Rs 220 crore. They are now worth Rs 275 crore, or gains of around Rs 55 crore in less than a month. The stock was trading at Rs 466.1 at the end of March. They rose to Rs 583.6 after the voluntary open offer was announced on Tuesday.
The biggest seller was the Vanguard group, which through multiple portfolios, sold 3.4 million shares in the company. T Rowe funds accounted for four of the top 10 sellers. It trimmed its holdings by a cumulative 337,872 shares through funds including its Global Large Cap Equity Fund and multiple portfolios.
SBI Funds sold 688,900 shares in the company through multiple portfolios as well as the SBI Blue Chip Fund.
Sarabjit Kaur Nangra, vice-president research at Angel Broking, stated the stock had been richly valued for some time, which might have contributed to some of the churn. "Valuations have been on the higher side and we are neutral on the stock at this point. Margins and growth figures for the company will continue to be watched," she said.
Easy access to capital may have prompted the move by HUL, according to one domestic fund manager.
"The monetary policy is so loose, that the company may believe investing in its own business through the stock is a way of generating better returns," said the person who preferred not to be identified.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs( as a category raised their stake from 21.68 per cent in December to 22.11 per cent in March. The number of FIIs, who held the stock declined from 645 to 609, according to stock exchange data. Nine mutual funds added HUL to their portfolios in the quarter ended in March, according to stock exchange data. The number of mutual fund holders in the stock rose from 256 at the end of December to 265 at the end of March-their holding increasing from 1.41 per cent to 1.56 per cent.
